Dominick Antonio Thompson

Sheriff Chuck Wright said two women went to an ATM, and didn’t know three men were following them.

According to an incident report, the women got to their home on Draymont Avenue and two men wearing masks and carrying guns demanded money.

“A lot of the home invasions have a certain twist to it, but this one looks to me, from all appearances, as two of our citizens, two of our ladies, going in their own home and three bad guys approach them and try steal their stuff and they didn’t take it,” said Wright.

Deputies said one suspect held one victim in a vehicle and the other suspect led the other victim to the door of the home.

According to an incident report, the victim who was at the door of her home, told the suspect that she had to disarm her security alarm, and as she stepped into her home, she heard gunshots.

Deputies said the other suspect, who was holding the other victim in the vehicle, shot that victim and then ran.

The other suspect ran, too, and that’s when the victim who had been at the doorstep of her home, pulled out a gun and shot at both men.

“You’ve got to pat this lady on the back. She got two out of three of them with a 9mm, and then reloaded and was wanting some more,” said Wright. “I’m going to ask her if she wants a job, apparently she knows how to shoot real well.”

One suspect ran to another home in the neighborhood and charged the homeowner, according to deputies.

Deputies said that homeowner then struck the suspect with the butt and barrel of his shotgun, and held the suspect until law enforcement got there.

“He’s a hero,” said Wright. “I want to publicly tell him that that’s what neighbors do for one another.”

The other suspect was later arrested. Both were suffering from gunshot wounds.

“That’s exactly the reason a few years back I said, ‘Ladies, get yourself a CWP (concealed weapon permit), learn how to defend your property and yourself,’ and this was the ultimate time to defend yourself,” Wright said.

Dominick Antonio Thompson and Nicholas Tavoris Bobo are both facing several charges, including attempted murder and kidnapping.

A third suspect, Letoshmen Lykeen Bobo, who deputies said was the getaway car driver, has not been arrested. He is also facing several charges.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Letoshmen Bobo is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

Thompson, Nicholas Bobo and the victim who was shot remain in the hospital.

At 52, the life-long bachelor has been fodder for such rumors for years, but with the resignation of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho — the anti-gay politician who pled guilty to disorderly conduct after allegedly soliciting sex in an airport men’s room — the internet is abuzz over who’s next, and they’re dying to know what’s going on in Graham’s bedroom. Is it the latest grasp for the light switch in South Carolina’s powerful political closet? Or the inevitable labeling of “closet-clinging self-hater” that befalls any content bachelor?

Mainstream media often avoids asking older, single politicians what they do in their free time. While there were rumors dating back 25 years, it wasn’t until blog reports about Craig trolling cruisy D.C. restrooms that The Idaho Statesmen put a reporter on the story. And even though they held the story until after Craig’s arrest was made public, some still accused the paper of orchestrating a witch hunt.

When GQ asked last year, Graham wasn’t mean, just dismissive. He said he’s not gay, just a loner. But that denial isn’t stalling renewed interest in the question. In a post on who’s next out of the closet following Craig’s arrest, blogger Michael Signorile (www.signorile.com) first points a questioning finger at Graham.

“Let’s have a real investigation of the rumors about South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who … has been rumored to be gay for years,” Signorile says. “Like Larry Craig, Graham has voted antigay — including for the federal marriage amendment — while people in South Carolina and Washington have discussed what some say is an open secret for a long, long time.”

Graham isn’t the first South Carolina politician to face such questions. While other names are omitted from this story because they aren’t at the center of national speculation (thank your lucky chinos, boys) they’ve reached some of the most influential seats in state politics.

Charlie Smith, a West Ashley realtor who ran for the Statehouse twice as an openly gay man, says that he finds it laughable when activists suggest that gay South Carolinians should show political leaders that they’re no different from straight people. “They know exactly what it means to be gay,” he says. “They just don’t have integrity.”

Fortunately for them, what they do have is a gay community content with leaving the rumors for cocktail hour chatter and not front page scandal. “I’m not a believer in outing,” Smith says. “People have a right to deal with this in their own time.”

He has also let opportunities go by when he could have challenged these officials about their sexuality. “It can be very detrimental in politics to back people into a corner,” Smith says. “Even when they’re acting against their own self interests and mine.”

That said, he warns that the tightrope these closeted politicians are walking is thin and that positions harmful to the gay community could prompt activists to address the hypocrisy, much like they have in the Craig case. “They know we’ll fight back,” Smith says.

The comments about Graham are not new, but they haven’t seen this kind of prominence since Graham’s 2002 election to the U.S. Senate. Early in the campaign, state Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian said Graham was “a little too light in the loafers to fill Strom Thurmond’s shoes.” He later said he didn’t know what “too light in the loafers” meant. Apparently he didn’t know what too thick in the head meant either.

During a debate, Democratic candidate Alex Sanders also seemed to frame a question about Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement as an indictment on Graham’s personal life. “(Giuliani’s) wife kicked him out, and he moved in with two gay men and a Shih Tzu. Is that South Carolina values? I don’t think so.”

The renewed movement to question Graham’s sexuality won’t chink his armor in front of South Carolina voters, says Jack Bass, a political science professor at the College of Charleston and co-author of Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond.

“I believe South Carolina voters are far more interested in the performance of elected politicians than in issues of personal privacy,” Bass says. “I believe Lindsey Graham is widely respected by South Carolina voters as an independent voice who stands up for what he believes in.”

With rampant calls for a primary opponent to challenge Graham next year, it likely won’t be the Dems that Graham has to be concerned about with the gay-baiting. While many in the Democratic Party have reveled at the scandalous exit of Sen. Craig, a long-standing opponent of gay rights, the most vocal calls for his ouster came from his own party, including presidential candidate John McCain, Graham’s Senate BFF.

The pattern seems to be that you don’t come out until befallen in scandal, what with New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey’s hiring his honey, Congressman Mark Foley’s chasing former pages, and pastor Ted Haggard’s paying for “massages” and meth from gay hookers.

But former Ninth Circuit Solicitor David Schwacke was outed through a GOP smear campaign. When anti-gay leaders in the GOP caught wind that Schwacke was gay, they pressed him to resign. When he refused, they accused him of using office computers to search for sex online. The charges proved baseless and Schwacke continued to serve until being unseated in the Republican primary. Looking back, Schwacke says some good did come out of it — his freedom. “I probably was not going to come out voluntarily,” he says. “At least not with that kind of timing.”

Considering the state’s recent same-sex marriage ban, gay politicians see good reason to stay in the closet, says Truman Smith, president of the South Carolina Log Cabin Republicans. But he says there will be a day when politicians won’t bury their sexual orientation — once the next generation rises to power without the requisite hangups over gays and lesbians (or potentially asexual loners, for that matter).

“On most issues, politicians don’t lead the way, they lag behind,” he says.

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Liberty SC is just a couple of towns away from me. We were at Littlejohn Coliseum on Sat. where all the Pickens County graduations were held to drop my granddaughter off to see her friends graduate, wish we had watched the Liberty High School graduation. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has already stopped the Pickens County School Board from having a prayer at the meetings, the School Board backed down, this kid didn’t, BRAVO for him. If you watch the video you will notice that the teachers behind him are all smiling but didn’t have the nerve to applaud.

Valedictorian surprises graduation crowd, draws cheers

Roy Costner throws out approved speech, says prayer

UPDATED 11:29 AM EDT Jun 04, 2013

PICKENS COUNTY, S.C. —A school district under pressure to keep prayer out of meetings and gatherings got an unexpected delivery from one high school valedictorian

Saturday, at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum, Liberty High Valedictorian Roy Costner IV took his speech to the podium, and in front of the crowd, tore it up.

John Eby, Pickens County School District spokesman, said, “They write their speeches. They send them to someone on staff to have them approved.”

But Costner clearly had something else in mind.

After speaking for a few minutes, he thanked his parents for leading him to the Lord at a young age, and then he said, “I think most of you will understand when I say, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven…” as he began to recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Much of the crowd broke into tentative applause that then grew into cheers that nearly drown out Costner’s voice as he continued the prayer.

Brian Hoover, who is from Liberty and attended the graduation, said, “You couldn’t even hear him doing the prayer anymore because everybody was clapping and cheering.”

Costner finished, pointing his finger in the air for emphasis, saying, “For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen,” followed by more cheers and applause.

Hoover said, “From the ACLU sending FOIA requests to every district in the state this year after the Chesterfield County case, then the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent us a complaint about religion at board meetings and some other issues as well. That is why the reaction to the prayer at graduation was loud.”

There has been no word on who the carrier is but I’m betting on an illegal Mexican.

DHEC: Original TB carrier detained, confined

Hundreds tested in connection to Ninety Six Primary TB outbreak

GREENWOOD COUNTY, S.C. —The person identified by the Department of Health and Environmental Control to be the carrier who started a tuberculosis outbreak at an Upstate school has been detained by officials, according to a DHEC release.

December 17, 2012

Nullification is yet again picking up steam in Dixie.

Pursuing an archaic legal theory that punctuated pre-Civil War disputes between the federal government and states, South Carolina state Rep. Bill Chumley last week pre-filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would criminalize implementation of President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform law.

If his bill becomes law, any state official caught enforcing the healthcare law would be guilty of a misdemeanor and “must be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Federal officials caught enforcing the law, however, would be given stiffer punishment under the proposal.

Any federal employee or contractor enforcing the law “is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both,” the bill proposes.

“I think we’re within our rights to do this,” Chumley explained to U.S. News. “It’s an obligation, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect the people.”

The bill was drafted after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the healthcare law in June, a decision that Chumley strongly disagrees with. In response, says Chumley, “we put a little study committee together to look at the possibility of nullification.”

The study group included local lawyers, retired political science professors, and medical doctors, Chumley says. Another attendee was state Sen. Lee Bright, who is proposing similar legislation in the legislature’s upper chamber.

“If we don’t do something now, when do we?” says Chumley. “It’s a sad situation that the government put us in… an unpleasant task you have to do from time to time.”

“I feel very, very good about support,” he adds. “I don’t think it’ll be a really hard sell.”

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, also a Republican, has made no public statement on the bill. Chumley said he has seen Haley just once since setting up his study group and “didn’t want to bother her with this.”

Among the items in the healthcare law that irk Chumley are the individual health insurance mandate, “the establishment of 150 or so more agencies,” “the addition of many thousand new IRS agents,” and “home visits to come out and see how you’re living.”

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, however, told U.S. News the proposed law “would be clearly un-enforceable, because the federal law – upheld by the Supreme Court – trumps state law.”

“But I assume it’s meant to make a political statement, not to have a direct legal effect,” adds Volokh.

Student had gun, 200 rounds, knives, cuffs, stun gun

Hunter Ray Green arrested

UPDATED 10:00 PM EST Dec 17, 2012

A 17-year-old was arrested Monday morning after a tip led authorities to a car on a high school campus filled with an assortment of weapons, police said.

Easley police said a concerned student told faculty members that another student had weapons and ammunition inside a vehicle.

Faculty members searched the car belonging to 17-year-old Hunter Ray Green of Easley, and said they found numerous weapons, including a loaded .22-caliber handgun.

Police said they also found two wood-handled axes, a stun gun, a razor blade knife, nine other knives of various sizes, handcuffs and 200 assorted rounds of ammunition.

Green is charged with possession of firearms on school property.

School District of Pickens County spokesman John Eby said under district policy, Green will be recommended for expulsion for no less than 365 days.

Eby said in a release, “It appears that the guns were left in the car after being used for hunting and recreation and were not taken to the school with the intent to harm anyone.(EXCUSE ME??? Those kind of weapons for hunting and recreation??? Among other things, what kind of recreation and hunting are handcuffs used for? -Phoebe) However, bringing weapons on school grounds violates state law, and the school district has a zero-tolerance policy towards weapons on school grounds.

“The timing of this incident is extremely unfortunate, but there is no indication that there was ever an intended threat to the school.

“We commend the student who came forward with the information and the staff members who responded quickly to ensure the safety of Easley High.”

Green was being held at the Easley Law Enforcement Center pending a bond hearing.

Rep. Tim Scott is South Carolina’s first black senator

Gov. Nikki Haley named Rep. Tim Scott as the replacement for U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint.

Scott is South Carolina’s first black senator. He becomes the Senate’s only black member and the GOP’s second African-American senator since Reconstruction.

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African-American U.S. senator. He was elected by the Mississippi State Senate in 1871. President Barack Obama, elected by popular vote, was the fifth African-American senator.

U.S. Rep. Tim Scott was sworn-in for his freshman term on Jan. 5, 2011. His website describes him as “a tireless advocate for smaller government, lower taxes and restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington.”

Scott was asked to serve as a Deputy Whip and sits as one of two freshmen on the Elected Leadership Committee.

His website also says that Scott has consistently voted for significant cuts in federal spending.

Before being elected to Congress, Scott served on Charleston County Council for 13 years, including four terms as chairman and in the South Carolina House of Representatives for two years where he was elected Chairman of the Freshman Caucus and House Whip.

He was previously the owner of Tim Scott Allstate and partner of Pathway Real Estate Group.

SacObserver, the African-American online news source, said, “Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former prosecutor from Spartanburg, said Scott would be his top choice. He noted that Scott has already been named to Ways and Means, the House’s tax-writing committee.

“If she asked my opinion, I would tell her there are two members of the delegation I wished she would consider, and I’m not one of them,” he said.

Gowdy said the other would be Rep. Mick Mulvaney, according to SacObserver.

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December 06, 2012

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is leaving Congress to head the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The Tea Party-backed senator announced the move Thursday, saying he will step down from the Senate in January to become president of The Heritage Foundation think tank. He plans to formally start the new job in April.

“I’m leaving the Senate now, but I’m not leaving the fight. I’ve decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas,” he said in a statement. “No organization is better equipped to lead this fight and I believe my experience in public office as well as in the private sector as a business owner will help Heritage become even more effective in the years to come.”

DeMint later told Fox News that “I honestly believe I can do a lot more on the outside than on the inside.”

DeMint has been an outspoken voice in the Senate for its most conservative wing, most recently chiding House Republican leaders for offering to put revenue on the table as part of negotiations over the looming fiscal crisis.

He was elected to a second term in the Senate in 2010. His departure sets up a succession battle in South Carolina. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley would choose a replacement, who would then have to run in a special election in 2014.

One member of the South Carolina congressional delegation told Fox News the move was seen as a “total surprise.”

DeMint will replace outgoing president Ed Feulner at Heritage. Heritage Board Chairman Thomas Saunders said in a statement that DeMint “has shown that principled conservatism remains a winning political philosophy.”

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Having lived in SC for the past 20 years I have to totally agree with this assessment except Alabama should be number one. I lived in Alabama for 6 months years ago and twice shortly after I left I encountered people who had also lived in Alabama, when they asked me why I had left my response was, “it took me that long to get enough money to leave”, they replied that was why they stayed there that long too. I actually never did get enough money to leave so I left the majority of my belongings and hitchhiked out of there.

South Carolina isn’t a bad place to live as long as you don’t associate with the locals, they’re lazy, uneducated and rude, no southern hospitality here. They can’t seem to get that, if it weren’t for northerners and foreign companies they would have no economy whatsoever, that they would still be living in the dark ages. The air quality is so bad that I developed asthma almost immediately on arrival. I guess on reflection there is really nothing good about living in SC except the mild weather.

-Phoebe

The Bloomberg network says South Carolina is the fourth most miserable state in the United States, according to a list of aggregated statistics.

Using the “misery index”, a method of measuring the level of happiness or sadness in a state, combined with 13 other measurements such as income inequality, air pollution, lack of health insurance and underemployment, the network says the top five states are all in the South.

Coming in at number one is Mississippi, which the network says has an income per capita of $31,000 — less than the national average of $39,000.

Alabama comes in at number two because of high income inequality. Number three is Louisiana, and of course, our beloved Palmetto State is number four. Filling out this dubious top five is Arkansas.